PAST EXHIBITS
Maps and the Age of Exploration
Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery
August 23, 2023 - February 16, 2024
This exhibit featured maps from the Middle Ages through the 17th Century, visualizing a shifting worldview, while also exploring issues surrounding the Doctrine of Discovery and colonialism, with a challenge to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and reconsider how we see the world, our place in it, and others who share it with us today.
Features of the exhibit included…
An audio guided tour
The Ebstorf Map challenge (for your chance to win a map)
The opportunity to personally repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and take home a memento and call to action of your repudiation.
Indigenous Maps with Traditional Names and Locations of Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and British Columbia available for purchase by donation (minimum $25).
Columbia Art Showcase: Beauty from Ashes
March 2 (7:30pm) - April 14, 2023 (extended through Summer 2023)
After a couple years without having one, we had our 4th Columbia Art Showcase - an exhibit of original artwork by the Columbia community - on the theme of "Beauty from Ashes." There was an opening night reception on March 2 at 7:30pm. Refreshments were be provided, artists present, and all welcome.
Let’s Play! An interactive and cultural look at board games through history
August 17, 2022 - February 17, 2023
From the very earliest civilizations of antiquity, people have been playing board games. This exhibit not only displays a selection of board games from across history and from around the world, but also provides an opportunity to learn and play the games. The exhibit also invites visitors to reflect on the role and value of board games within society, and how the different types of board games reflect back on the cultures that inspired them.
"Featured Games of the Week" ran from October through December 2022.
Congratulations to the prize winners, Carlos F. and Esther H.
Special thank you to Boardwalk Cafe and Games for generously donating the gift card prize.
Intro Exhibit Write-up - Why Do We Play?
Why do we play? Is it to spend quality time with friends and family? Is it to escape our day-to-day lives? Board games have been around for over 5000 years. As such, they represent a commonality in human nature across the ages and the human impulse for recreation. And yet, each game has held a unique purpose and value within its original context. Some games were associated with gambling, some for divination or divine guidance, others to test a mind’s sharpness, and still others to prepare for and strategize for war. Different social classes would sometimes play different kinds of games or play for different purposes, and games would often be played outdoors.
Today, table-top board games have encountered a resurgence, and this despite the availability of screen-based video games. Rather than seen as just rainy-day activities, or just for kids, board games are played by all ages and valued for relaxation, fun, and to build community. But is there more to board games?
Board games have not always had the innocent and casual past-time association they have today. In different times in history, they have been scorned and even banned for their immoral or religious association – whether that is gambling (e.g. Mahjong), or a means of dissent against the dominant culture (e.g. Patolli).
Other games have been useful for teaching kids (and adults!) life lessons. Whether it is early versions of snakes and ladders teaching about morality, or the Landlord’s Game teaching about the pitfalls of capitalist greed. Games can be used to teach us lessons. Dice are used to teach children math and probability in school. Strategy and critical thinking can be developed by playing games like Chess and Go.
Games serve many different purposes, and there are many different genres of games that have been and are still played. There are race games (e.g. Senet, the Royal Game of Goose, and Pachisi), war games (e.g. Hnefetafl, Chess, and Kriegsspiel), games of position (e.g. Nine Men’s Morris, Go, and Chinese Checkers), and others (e.g. Mancala, Mahjong, and Dungeons and Dragons). The ever-expanding variety of board games available today means there is a game out there for everyone.
The games we play today and the games of history reflect back something of the culture and values of the societies that produced them and they hold a special place of importance within those societies. This exhibit will showcase different games from different eras from around the world, and provide opportunity to learn and play the games for yourself. It will also show societal and cultural dynamics surrounding those games. In doing so, the exhibit aims to speak into today and help us understand what we value, how our games are shaped by what we value, help us to see more clearly why we play, and hopefully have fun playing in the process.
A Tale of Two Churches: Insight into the Church through Architecture
September 1, 2021 - February 12, 2022 Extended to end of May, 2022
The institution of the church has been around for over a thousand years. Today, the church is often conceived of, not in terms of its physical space, but in terms of its community. It is not uncommon to hear someone say, “The church is not the building; it’s the people.” And yet, for thousands of years, Christians have been gathering and filling physical spaces. She has inhabited houses, catacombs, temples, chapels, theatres, schools, and cathedrals. Some are filled to the brim with art and ornamentation, others’ walls are bare and non-descript. Yet the walls themselves speak.
Whether we recognize it or not, church buildings have been speaking to us for centuries. In fact, one of the best ways to understand the history of the church is to take a look at its architecture.
This exhibit will showcase two churches, a 3rd century house church at Dura-Europos in Syria, and one of the most long-standing cathedrals, Notre-Dame of Paris. As you explore these buildings and compare their architecture, think about the ways their buildings communicate theology and faith through the ages and how our own buildings might do that today. These old churches serve as windows into the past and reflections of the Christian practice.
As you explore these two fascinating churches, try to also explore the churches of our day. After a year in a pandemic, without the ability to meet in our buildings consistently, what do you think the church is going to look like? How will the buildings shape the community? And how will such buildings speak to us and the culture around us?
The Liturgical Calendar:
A Journey Through the Liturgical Year
November 25, 2020 to July 30, 2021
An Exhibit through 5 Seasons:
Advent & Christmas: November 25 to December 30, 2020
Epiphany & Ordinary Time: January 6 to February 13, 2021
Lent: February 17 to March 26, 2021
Holy Week & Easter: March 31 to May 14, 2021
Pentecost & Ordinary Time: May 19 to July 30, 2021
The exhibit featured artwork, symbols, and objects that relate to each season of the Liturgical Year, inviting the visitor to both understand and journey through the rhythms and narratives of the Christian Year.
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, the exhibit was available both in-person and online.
Columbia Art Showcase:
Restoration
March 5 (8pm) to April 8, 2020 (extended to Fall 2020)
The exhibit featured original artwork from within the Columbia Bible College community in various mediums – painting, mixed media, wood carving, short story, poetry, pottery, etc. It included 5 commissioned pieces, which were displayed alongside artwork submitted by other students, alumni, and staff/faculty.
Faces of Jesus
August 30, 2019 to February 8, 2020
This exhibit featured images of Jesus from multiple approaches: historical Jesus (including the Shroud of Turin, a forensic reconstruction, and the veil of veronica), cross-cultural perspectives (white Jesus, black Jesus, Asian Jesus, Indigenous Jesus, and more), and theological themes through art history and today (powerful, diverse, comical, and challenging).
Columbia Art Showcase:
“The Story We Share”
March 7 (7:30pm) to April 13, 2019
Original art by a passionate community of storytellers. The exhibit highlights original artwork by students and staff at Columbia Bible College. It features 3 commissioned pieces by Abby Thompson, Evelyn Boulton, and Catherine Bergs, which are displayed alongside artwork submitted by other students on the theme, “the story we share.”
The exhibit also includes 12 watercolour pieces by faculty member, Gareth Brandt, sharing “Stories of the Anabaptists.”
Also, a portion of the previous HERstory exhibit continues to be on display – sharing the stories of important women in Christian history you’ve probably never heard of (but should).
The exhibit launched with a Thursday evening (March 7th, 7:30-9:00pm) reception in the Metzger Collection. Free Admission with refreshments and a chance to meet the artists.
A Selection in HERstory:
Important Women in History You’ve Probably Never Heard of (But Should)
August 31, 2018 to February 1, 2019 (extended one more week)
His-tory tends to focus on men to the exclusion and marginalization of women’s voices. This exhibit seeks to even-out some of these ruts of history by putting the spotlight on a selection of women. The 13 women selected (at 11 stations) are not your typical big names, but yet have had tremendous influence on society and lived exemplary lives. They are inspiring stories worth sharing. You may be familiar with a couple of them, or even a handful, but likely not all of them. The women highlighted include Susanna, Perpetua and Felicity, Helena, Pope Joan, Hildegard von Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Maria and Ursula van Beckum, Rebecca Protten, Elizabeth Fry, Sarah Platt Doremus, and Dorothy Day.
More on the exhibit:
This exhibit is not attempting to be representative. For the sake of some parameters, the exhibit is limited to women in the Christian tradition. Even there, while the women selected represent a bit of the chronological scope, they only partially touch the geographical, ethnic, denominational, and vocational diversity of influential women in the Christian tradition.
In encountering such women who have overcome the constraints that their male-dominated societies would place on them, one is encouraged to both recognize the untold HERstories that lie under the surface of history, and to oneself rise above the challenges and obstacles that our own society might place on us, and impact the world around us in powerful ways.
Included with the exhibit was an opportunity to add particular women not otherwise included by writing their names and significance on a card and posting them on the bulletin board. There was also an opportunity to purchase buttons for each woman.
Columbia Art Showcase:
New Creation
March 8 – April 18, 2018
An exhibit of original artwork from within the Columbia Bible College Community, exploring “New Creation” and other themes. The exhibit features 3 commissioned pieces by students Talya Walde, Jillian Thompson, and Jessica Toews. Artwork by other students, alumni, and staff/faculty are also on display.
Gareth Brandt, one of Columbia’s faculty, has submitted over 20 watercolour pieces on the themes of “Home” and “The Sacred and the Profane.” These pieces are also for sale, and one of them will be given away as a prize draw.
The exhibit launched with a Thursday evening (March 8th, 7:30-9:00pm) reception in the Metzger Collection. Admission was Free. There were snacks, a chance to meet some of the artists, and opportunity to enter in a draw for one of Gareth’s watercolours.
Reformation or Reformations?
Oct. 14, 2017 – Feb. 10, 2018
500 years ago, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a young Augustinian monk and lecturer at the recently established University of Wittenberg nailed a list of ninety-five theses to the door of the castle church. These theses primarily called into question the sale of indulgences as a corruption of the penitential system and Christian faith. In the ensuing years, this single act snowballed into what has been popularly called, The Reformation.
But is that really the whole story? Did Martin Luther start the Reformation when he posted the Ninety-five Theses (and some would even call into question whether he nailed them at all)? Can we properly speak about the 16th century as The Reformation – a singular movement – or do we better understand it as Reformations, plural? Certainly, Martin Luther was a prominent and famous (or infamous) figure of the 16th century, but can he – or would he even have wanted to – take credit for all that follows, as various movements of reform get picked up, often in conflict with one another?
This exhibit, Reformation or Reformations?, partly traces through the life of Martin Luther and partly focuses on the various movements that spring out of the 16th century, leaving visitors to determine for themselves how best to answer the exhibit question. The posters flowing through the exhibit are the cooperative work of several German organizations, giving it the title, #HereIstand. Martin Luther, the Reformation and its Consequences. It is arranged as seven chapters, including Martin Luther’s ORIGINS , which are seen against the backdrop of the SPHERES OF LIFE , the context of the reforming AWAKENING. The initial SUCCESSES of the spread of reformation ideas and changes also paved the way for CRISIS as religious and political differences erupted in conflict and violence. Alongside religious changes were also significant social changes, including a CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE in gender roles. The exhibit concludes with a view to POSTERITY in recognition that the 16th century Reformation(s) permanently altered the landscape of Europe, Western civilization, and the world.
Today we live in a world both different from and shaped by the Reformation(s). In what ways do the voices of Martin Luther and the 16th century reformers inspire, challenge, and speak to us in our own context today?
Getting Our Hands on the Bible
April 8 - September 15, 2017
This past exhibit traces the textual history of the Bible to help us understand how the Bible came into our hands. It features replicas of our earliest ancient texts of the Old and New Testament, medieval illuminated manuscripts from the reaches of Christendom, and Reformation translations printed on Gutenberg’s printing press.
The Bible has a long and rich textual story. Today, with accessibility to the Bible like never before – whether with Bible apps on smart phones, translations into the majority of the world’s languages, or the fact that many households have numerous hard copies of various versions – we can take the Bible for granted. Through most of Christian history, however, the vast majority of Christians did not have access to the Bible.
During ancient times, particularly because of the huge costs to produce books and limited technologies in book-making, a single, bound copy of the whole Bible was unfathomable.
Rather, churches (and synagogues) possessed copies of sections of the Bible, like an Isaiah scroll or a codex (book-form) of the letters of Paul. Our very earliest extant Scriptural texts are the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating as early as 250 BC. For the New Testament, we have assortments of early papyri – the earliest of which is P52, a small fragment from the Gospel of John, dating to c. 90-120 AD. Otherwise, our New Testament is largely based on 4th-century codices including the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and Codex Alexandrinus. Thanks to a generous loan by Dr. Kent Clarke, professor at Trinity Western University, we are able to display rare, high-quality facsimiles of these codices and additional texts for this feature exhibit.
During the Middle Ages, illiteracy proved the greatest obstacle to accessibility to the Bible. Through these times it was largely monks who held the libraries, read the Bible for themselves, and copied the texts. The tradition of illuminated manuscripts developed where pictures and images were placed alongside the written text, and often intertwined with the letters themselves. Thanks to a generous donation from the Thiessen Foundation, the Metzger Collection is now also in possession of the Thiessen Manuscripts Collection, and is able to display beautiful and ornate texts from the far reaches of medieval Christendom. You can see the Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels from the far corner of the known world in Celtic Ireland and then compare it with the Ethiopian Gospels from the complete opposite corner of Christendom.
These texts are open and accessible for you to page through yourself and witness both the continuity and diversity of artistic expression and scripts themselves as these various cultures received and engaged with the Gospel.
Finally, the exhibit ends in the context of the Reformation, when thanks to the Gutenberg printing press and the technology to mass produce books, many of the earlier challenges of accessibility to the Bible were removed. With literacy on the rise and the increasing affordability of books, in addition to the Gutenberg Bible, Reformers also sought to translate the Bible into vernacular languages that people could understand (rather than Latin), whether the Luther Bible in German or the Geneva Bible in English. The Bible could finally get into peoples’ hands like never before and they could read and interpret it for themselves.
Today, we live into the heritage of the rich textual history of the Bible. Enjoy the feature exhibit as you experience it for yourself, and make sure you take advantage of the opportunity to get your hands on the Bible.
Maps & the Age of Exploration
Sept 2 2016 – Mar 11 2017
This past exhibit featured maps from the Middle Ages through the 17th Century and explores themes of cartography, navigation, colonialism, missions, and the Doctrine of Discovery.
A map offers incredible insights into a worldview far beyond the fact that it literally depicts how people view the world. Maps depict values; they are not neutral representations of land mass. Moving from the Middle Ages into the Age of Exploration, the exhibit allows the visitor to witness the shifts and developments in maps, and in turn, developments in worldview. Visitors will also see the different navigational and cartographical tools used to mark out coastlines around the world. See it culminate in the stunning three-panel, 9×6 ft.map of the world from 1651.
Part and parcel with European exploration are issues of colonialism and the Doctrine of Discovery. Christopher Columbus did not discover the “New World” when he set sail westward in 1492. He stumbled upon inhabited land, and what was new to Europeans had been inhabited by indigenous people for millennia. Yet, through the Age of Exploration, Europeans approached indigenous peoples and their lands with a mindset of superiority, a mission of domination, and a moral and legal justification for the seizure of lands and subjugation of peoples in the Doctrine of Discovery. The Doctrine of Discovery, as first articulated by Pope Nicholas V in the mid-15th Century, called Christian European monarchs “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue” all Muslim and pagan people and their lands, reducing the people “to perpetual slavery” and their property to the sovereignty of the monarch (Romanus Pontifex, January 8, 1455). The story of global Christian missions, while nuanced, is inextricably tied to European colonialism. A visit to this feature exhibit will hopefully work toward repudiating oppressions past and present and journeying toward reconciliation with our indigenous neighbours.